Georgetown Villanova Live Blog

Late to my seat on the baseline and late to start today's live blog but I'll be here to post some musing and thoughts during the game.

It's always fun coming to Philly, mainly since I make this into a family trip and visit my sister, who lives about five minutes from the Nova campus. Since I didn't get to visit here at Christmas-time, my wife and daughter came up with me and it was Christmas in January.

This is always a fun trip because the Villanova sports information office is clearly among the favorites of our office, probably because women's basketball SID Barbara Barnes used to work here, but there's also a lot of love for Mike Sheridan, Dave Berman and Krissy Woods, who I'm sitting next to.

If you are watching at home you may not be able to see the sneakers and socks that the team is wearing. It's Coaches vs. Cancer Weekend so all coaches are wearing sneakers. Head Coach John Thompson III has a special streak of pink in his shoes to signify the fight against breast cancer. Georgetown's players are wearing the same sneakers and socks with pink on them as a tribute as well. I tweeted a picture of this (@MexCarey) and will see if I can figure out how to add the picture here.

Here's a link at least: http://yfrog.com/h4wpaozj

We're at the last media timeout of the first half and the HOyas are shooting 45.5 percent from the floor and 42.9 from three-point land. It's 25-19 and GU will have the ball when we come back.

And big props here to the students from Hoya Blue, who appear to have taken two sections up in the 400s. They are loud, boisterous and you can hear them down here on the baseline. They are clearly louder than the Villanova students at this point. Also in the house are former Hoya men's lax players Scott Kocis, Chris Schuville, Eric Bickenese and Chris Nixon, who got together for today's game.

We're at the half now and here are a few stats to throw out. The Hoyas are shooting 50 percent from the floor and 44.4 percent from three-point land. GU holds a15-12 advantage on the boards. Seven different players have scored for GU with Austin Freeman leading the way with 10 points. The frontcourt duo of Nate Lubick (4, 2) and Henry Sims (4, 5) have combined for eight points and seven rebounds.

I'm sitting on the baseline and just saw Jason Clark since a three-pointer to make it 39-28, quieting the crowd here. Moments before I remarked to Associate Athletic Directors Brian McGuire and Blanton Jones that there was far less electricity in this building than in previous years. I'm sure part of that is due to the Hoya lead right now, but there doesn't seem to be a gameday energy. The only real gameday energy is coming from, I think, section 417, where there is a "Hoya Saxa" chant.

Media timeout and it's 41-34 Hoyas. The crowd has come to life a bit and that's not a shocker with this series. The teams have only played 69 times prior - Nova-GU is not one of the historically long series in program history - but 45 of those games have been decided by between 1 and 10 points. That's an amazing number. The Hoyas are 23-22 in games decided by 1 to 10 points in the series, for the record.